Catching Fire. the Impressive Lineup Is Joined by the Hunger Games
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Cast: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone, Natalie Dormer, with Stanley Tucci, and Donald Sutherland Directed by: Francis Lawrence Screenplay by: Peter Craig and Danny Strong Based upon: The novel “Mockingjay” by Suzanne Collins Produced by: Nina Jacobson, Jon Kilik SYNOPSIS The blockbuster Hunger Games franchise has taken audiences by storm around the world, grossing more than $2.2 billion at the global box office. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 now brings the franchise to its powerful final chapter in which Katniss Everdeen [Jennifer Lawrence] realizes the stakes are no longer just for survival – they are for the future. With the nation of Panem in a full scale war, Katniss confronts President Snow [Donald Sutherland] in the final showdown. Teamed with a group of her closest friends – including Gale [Liam Hemsworth], Finnick [Sam Claflin] and Peeta [Josh Hutcherson] – Katniss goes off on a mission with the unit from District 13 as they risk their lives to liberate the citizens of Panem, and stage an assassination attempt on President Snow who has become increasingly obsessed with destroying her. The mortal traps, enemies, and moral choices that await Katniss will challenge her more than any arena she faced in The Hunger Games. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 is directed by Francis Lawrence from a screenplay by Peter Craig and Danny Strong and features an acclaimed cast including Academy Award®-winner Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Academy Award®-winner Philip Seymour Hoffman, Jeffrey Wright, Willow Shields, Sam Claflin, Jena Malone with Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland reprising their original roles from The Hunger Games and The Hunger Games: Catching Fire. The impressive lineup is joined by The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 co-stars Academy Award®-winner Julianne Moore, Mahershala Ali, Natalie Dormer, Wes Chatham, Elden Henson and Evan Ross. The Revolution is About All of Us “Real. Because that’s what you and I do – protect each other.” -- Katniss The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 brings the global motion picture phenomenon to its thrilling and emotionally powerful last chapter as the stakes for Katniss Everdeen escalate from surviving the most deadly games ever devised to setting the course of the future. The story picks up with Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) back in the bunkers of District 13, still unable to emotionally reach a brainwashed Peeta as she watches the nation of Panem sliding into full-scale apocalyptic war. Though Katniss has warily accepted her role as the Mockingjay symbol of the rebellion, she can see that it is going take more than symbolism to turn the tide against the Capitol. Truly on fire now, she resolves to take action. Joining with Gale (Liam Hemsworth), an unpredictable Peeta (Josh Hutcherson), Finnick (Sam Claflin), and the so-called “Squad 451,” she sets out for the once-glittering Capitol – transformed into a city of mayhem under attack by both rebels and peacekeepers – with a covert mission to assassinate President Snow. Snow still believes he’s playing an obsessive game to outwit and destroy Katniss, but Katniss is no longer anyone’s pawn, and to her, this is no contest. It is a battle for everything she has come to believe in and the people she loves. It is a battle for the final hope of a life of peace. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 builds on the momentum of each previous chapter in the blockbuster series to reach a fever pitch of both emotion and action, bringing Katniss full circle from the dismayed girl caught in a dystopian nightmare to leading the charge to remake her nation. The first film, The Hunger Games, introduced audiences to Katniss, an independent-minded but anonymous 16 year-old girl living in District 12, one of Panem’s enslaved districts, with little future of which to dream. Her life changes instantaneously when she volunteers in her younger sister’s place for the annual Hunger Games, an intense gladiatorial competition of sheer survival between 24 adolescent warriors known as Tributes, broadcast live on national TV. Katniss and District 12’s male Tribute, Peeta Mellark, are soon whisked to the Capitol, the center of tyrannical power, where a glammed-out populace feeds off lurid spectacles. There, separated from her family and best friend Gale, she is thrown into a glitzy makeover and grueling training, before entering the arena as an underdog in the 74th Annual Hunger Games. Forced to make harrowing decisions spanning life, death, friendship and love, Katniss discovers reserves of strength and willpower she never knew she had, and attains an unsettling new fame as “The Girl on Fire” … but the costs to her spirit are high. The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, rejoins Katniss as a victor of the Hunger Games, but one who is given zero chance to enjoy her promised rewards or to recover from the physical and mental toll of the arena. Instead, haunted by memories and craving her independence, she is compelled into a deceptive “Victor’s Tour” and a public engagement to Peeta. Then she’s told she must do the unthinkable: re- 2 enter the Hunger Games arena in the lauded Quarter Quell games, which President Snow declares will be the ultimate battle between former victors – a move aimed directly at Katniss. The stakes grow higher as Katniss now fights as much for the lives of her friends and family as her own survival. In the jungle- themed arena, Katniss makes vital new alliances, even as she becomes the unwitting idol of a rapidly spreading rebellion against the Capitol. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1, begins as Katniss, extracted from the Quarter Quell games while unconscious, awakens in never-before-seen District 13, the dark, regimented underground realm where a plot to take over the Capitol is forming. Here, she is a legend. Yet Katniss feels more alone and uncertain of who to trust than ever. District 12 has been turned to rubble. Peeta is being held and forcibly indoctrinated by President Snow. Under pressure from District 13’s steely leader, President Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss must embrace a role she never really wanted: to embody the symbol of the Mockingjay, the symbol of hope. Even as she begins to open her wings, her path is unclear, as Peeta is rescued from Snow’s grip in a hate-filled trance, the people of the Districts grow increasingly desperate, and Snow remains as despotically in control as ever. Now, in the final chapter of The Hunger Games, with all the Districts united against the Capitol for the first time, tomorrow itself is on the line. For Katniss to truly be herself, she realizes she must now fully take on the indomitable Mockingjay spirit in a last stand to set things right. Says director Francis Lawrence: “In this film, Katniss takes the action back into her own hands and goes after Snow personally. The movie really opens up as we go deep into the streets of the Capitol, coming full circle from Katniss’s journey there in the first film. There’s more action, more scope, more emotion and most of all, this film brings the story to its moving conclusion.” A Mockingjay’s Last Hope In four increasingly complex film performances, Academy Award® winner Jennifer Lawrence has taken Katniss Everdeen through a pendulum’s worth of changes. She has metamorphosed from a disarmed girl trying to save herself and then her family to a deeply reluctant rebel hero and now finally, to a sharply-honed, fiercely determined leader determined to shatter a ruthless society for the good of all. Lawrence says she has enjoyed growing with the ever-evolving yet steadfastly true-to-herself character and is thrilled to bring Katniss to her apex in Mockingjay – Part 2. “This is the chapter when Katniss really starts to believe in the impact that she can have,” Lawrence comments. “She’s always been so reluctant and has always found herself in situations where all she can do is try to survive, but now she’s turning the tables. I was excited for her to finally take her place as a leader. At the end of Mockingjay – Part 1, she was kind of numb, and genuinely unsure if she wanted to go on. In Mockingjay – Part 2 she starts seeing the bigger picture. She’s looking beyond her own personal losses and gains to focus on making a better future.” 3 Adds producer Nina Jacobson, who along with producer Jon Kilik, has been there from the start: “For the first three movies, Katniss feels as if someone else is writing the script of her life and she has no choice but to either act or react to that script. In this final film, she makes her decision: that Snow must die and she’s going to get him. You see her character fully in control now, fully realized.” Josh Hutcherson, who as Peeta has also gone through dizzying changes from a baker’s son to Katniss’ closest ally to a tormented instrument of the Capitol, says of Katniss’s journey: “What was a story about a girl who wants to protect her family and survive has now become the story of a girl who creates what once seemed an impossible uprising. It’s the final push that culminates in a new world.” Yet even as she turns towards the future, the past weighs on Katniss. A constant reminder of the high costs of her journey is there in Peeta’s continuing inability to see Katniss for who she really is – and still harboring the relentlessly violent thoughts implanted by the Capitol towards her.